Vosges () is a department in the

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administra ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

in Northeastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It covers part of the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

mountain range, after which it is named. Vosges consists of three arrondissements, 17 cantons and 507

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, relig ...

, including

Domrémy-la-Pucelle Domrémy-la-Pucelle (, ; german: Remshausen) is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. The village, originally named Domrémy, is the birthplace of Joan of Arc. It has since been renamed ''Domrémy-la-Pucelle'' ...

, where

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

was born. In 2019, it had a population of 364,499 with an area of 5,874 km² (2,268 sq mi); its prefecture is

Épinal Épinal (; german: Spinal) is a commune in northeastern France and the prefecture of the Vosges department. Geography The commune has a land area of . It is situated on the river Moselle, south of Nancy. Épinal station has rail connecti ...

History

Hundred Years' War

was born in the village of Domrémy, then in the French part of the

Duchy of Bar The County of Bar, later Duchy of Bar, was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire encompassing the '' pays de Barrois'' and centred on the city of Bar-le-Duc. It was held by the House of Montbéliard from the 11th century. Part of the county, t ...

, or ''Barrois mouvant'', located west of the

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

. The part of the duchy lying east of the Meuse was part of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

. The Duchy of Bar later became part of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

. The village of Domrémy was renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle in honour of Joan.

French Revolution

The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on 4 March 1790 during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. It was made of territories that had been part of the province of

. In German it is referred to as ''Vogesen''. In 1793, the independent Principality of Salm-Salm (town of

Senones The Senones or Senonii (Gaulish: "the ancient ones") were an ancient Gallic tribe dwelling in the Seine basin, around present-day Sens, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Part of the Senones settled in the Italian peninsula, where they ...

and its surroundings), enclosed inside the Vosges department, was annexed to France and incorporated into Vosges. In 1795, the area of

Schirmeck Schirmeck () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is the location of the Alsace-Moselle Memorial museum. The name of the town means "protected place". In Lorraine dialect it is called "Chermec". ...

was detached from the

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

department and incorporated into the Vosges department. The Vosges department then had an area of 6,127 km² (2,366 sq miles), which it kept until 1871. In 1794, Vosges was the site of a major battle between the forces of Revolutionary France and the Allied Coalition. The oldest square in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, Place Royale, was renamed Place des Vosges in 1800 when the department became the first to pay the new revolutionary taxes.

Franco-Prussian War

After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, 4% of the Vosges department in the extreme northeast of the department was annexed to the German Empire by the Treaty of Frankfurt on the ground that the people there spoke Germanic dialects. The area annexed on May 18, 1871, corresponded to the canton of Schirmeck and the northern half of the canton of Saales. Schirmeck and Saales had been historically part of

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

. These territories, along with the rest of

and the annexed territories of Lorraine, became part of the ''Reichsland'' of '' Elsaß-Lothringen''. The area of the Vosges department was thus reduced to its current 5,874 km² (2,268 sq. miles).

First and Second World Wars

In 1919, with the allied victory in the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France by Germany at the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

. However,

and Saales were not returned to the Vosges department, but instead were incorporated into the recreated

department. An ill-fated Special Air Service (SAS) mission called Operation Loyton took place in the Vosges forests in 1944. Various military cemeteries are located in the department, the largest of which is the

Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial is a United States military cemetery in Dinozé, France. The site rests on a plateau above the Moselle River in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains. It contains the graves of 5,255 of the United States' ...

in Dinozé, near

. It was built by the American 45th Infantry Division in September 1944 and completed in 1959. 5,253 soldiers killed in action during fighting in France, the Vosges, the Rhine valley and Germany are interred there.

Geography

While the west part of the Vosges is flat sedimentary land (well suited for mineral waters), the east is dominated by the Vosges Mountain range and the Ballons des Vosges Nature Park. The Hohneck at 1363m is the highest peak of the Vosges department. The Monts Faucilles traverse the south of the department in a broad curve declining on the north into elevated plateaus, on the south encircling the upper basin of the River

Saône The Saône ( , ; frp, Sona; lat, Arar) is a river in eastern France. It is a right tributary of the Rhône, rising at Vioménil in the Vosges department and joining the Rhône in Lyon, at the southern end of the Presqu'île. The name ...

. This chain, dividing the basins of the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

and the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

, forms part of the European watershed between the basins of the Mediterranean and Atlantic. This entry further details the industrial base at the time. 48% of the department is covered by woodlands and forests (the third highest in France), while 45% of land is in agricultural use. The Saône (named after the Celtic goddess Sagona) rises at Vioménil, in the Vosges. The

Anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, su ...

river also passes through it.

Principal towns

The most populous commune is

, the prefecture. As of 2019, there are 9 communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants:Populations légales 2019: 88 Vosges
INSEE

Demographics

Population development since 1801:

Culture

The

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

fortified town A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

Grand Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and c ...

, located 30 km from

Toul Toul () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Geography Toul is between Commercy and Nancy, and the river Moselle and Canal de la Marne au Rhin. Climate Toul ...

, has an

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

and a temple to the Cult of Apollo. At La Bure, located a few kilometres from Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, archaeologists have found evidence for human habitation going back to around 2000 BC.

Séré de Rivières forts

As a border area, the Vosges region was a route for possible invasion. As such four important forts were constructed in the department: Bourlémont Fort in Mont-les-Neufchâteau (built between 1878 and 1881); Uxegney Fort (built between 1882 and 1884); Bois l'Abbé Fort (built in 1884 and 1885); and the Le Parmont Fort in Remiremont (built between 1874 and 1876).

Politics

The president of the Departmental Council is François Vannson, first elected in 2015.

Presidential elections 2nd round

Current National Assembly Representatives

Tourism

File:Epinal chateau2.jpg, Fort of

File:PA00107138.Maison natale de Jeanne d'Arc.1.jpg, Birth house of

File:Ballon-alsace2.jpg, Statue of Joan of Arc erected in 1909 at the former border with Alsace-Lorraine File:Coucher de soleil sur la vallée enneigée du Chajoux, janvier 2021 (2).jpg, The

mountain range in La Bresse File:Saint-Dié-des-Vosges-Cathédrale.jpg,

Saint-Dié Cathedral Saint-Dié Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Saint-Dié de Saint-Dié-des-Vosges) is a Roman Catholic church and '' monument historique'' of France, located in the town of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in Lorraine. The cathedral, formerly a collegiate churc ...

File:Gérardmer - Lac 28.jpg,

Lac de Gérardmer Lac de Gérardmer is a glacial lake at the city of Gérardmer, Vosges, France. It is located in the Vosges mountain range The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near it ...

File:BU 2013 RNR Rothenbach.JPG,

Rainkopf The Rainkopf is one of the highest summits of the Vosges Mountains. It is located on the border between the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine. Not faraway from its summit is located a mountain hut called ''Refuge "Louis Hergès" au Rainkopf'' ...

References

External links

* Vosges.co
Economic information about the Vosges
*
Departmental Council website
*
Prefecture website
*
Tourisme Vosges

Illustrated Article on the Vosges Battlefields in Winter at 'Battlefields Europe'
* Climbbybike.com
All information on and profiles of the climbs and cols of the Vosges
* {{Authority control 1790 establishments in France Grand Est region articles needing translation from French Wikipedia Departments of Grand Est States and territories established in 1790